One of the themes for my upcoming retreat in Panama is play and finding your inner joy. But it’s important that we don’t wait for a super cool vacation or yoga retreat before we start cultivating a joyful life. We can do it now, every day, by practicing gratitude!
According to Brene Brown’s research, every single person who described themselves as being joyful or living a joyful life attributed their joyfulness to their active gratitude practice!
Let me stress here that gratitude wasn’t just an attitude that they all had, but something that they actively practiced. In recent years, gratitude journals have become popular and are a great tool for cultivating joy, but you can take it deeper.
I have to admit, I’m not the best at keeping a journal… but I am good at meditating! So I’ve added a little heart meditation to the gratitude journal ritual. Feel free to do one or the other or both and watch your joyfulness grow. I hope you enJOY! ;)
“Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are.” - Marianne Williamso
Steps to keep a gratitude journal: You’re welcome. Love, Captain Obvious
Find a journal or piece of paper and pen.
Write down something you’re grateful for. Ie. “I am grateful for eco-friendly laundry detergent sheets.” (Seriously, check them out. Doing little things to help save the planet is sooo rewarding!)
Repeat. At least 5 times. EVERY. DAY.
** Be sure to include the little things. I find it’s often easiest to think of the big obvious stuff, like my kids, my spiritual teacher, my house, etc. But, looking for the little things on a daily basis, like a bumble bee pollinating a tulip that you pass on your walk, can start to rewire us for gratitude…… and hence, joy!
Add a gratitude meditation:
(You can do this next part in a seated meditation or standing in the shower at the end of your day. Wherever you are, it’ll help to have a straight spine.)
Think of one thing on your list and follow the feeling of gratitude into your heart
Inhale, draw your attention to the gratitude in your heart
Keep your awareness here in your heart as you slowly let your breath release
While your physical breath slowly seeps out, see if you can feel the subtle energetics of the heart center gently expand
Take several more breaths like this into the heart, each time allowing the heart chakra along with this feeling of gratitude to radiate outward like the warmth of a growing flame.
After a few minutes of opening your heart chakra, imagine you could collect all of the gratitude in your heart and wrap it up into a package of love. Visualize sending this love and gratitude upwards through the top of your head, offering it to the Divine (God, Consciousness, Shiva, Universe Source… whatever you relate to.)
If you wait for a few moments, you may feel blessings from the higher realms rain back down on you!
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